A decrease in payments for scrap has led to an increase in the number of abandoned vehicles across Mid Devon.

Investigations by Mid Devon District Council (MDDC) show that vehicles reported abandoned in quarter one 2018/19 increased by 9.1 per cent and in quarter two 1.8 per cent totalling 232 between April and September 2018.

At an Environment Policy Development Group meeting of the Council on Tuesday, January 8, Councillor Bob Evans (Lower Culm, Conservative) said he had noticed that “an awful lot of cars” had been abandoned and questioned how successful the Council was on recovering costs.

Officers at the meeting added that MDDC’s contractor did not charge the authority to remove abandoned vehicles, but that it was difficult to trace the culprits as the registered keeper was not legally responsible, but the registered owner was, and this information was not readily available.

Environment and enforcement manager Vicky Bowden said that if they receive a report that a vehicle is abandoned, it will be investigated.

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She said: “If the owner of the vehicle is contacted, after a time we can contact the DVLA to confirm the owner of that vehicle. More often than not, it will come back with no trace of an owner at all, in which case we wouldn't have that opportunity to follow that payment.

“However, if there is an owner of the vehicle, then through data protection and chasing that individual - whether it be from another council or through our own - we'll try and locate them and then we will follow that up with the fine.”

Director of operations, Andrew Pritchard, reminded councillors that the registered keeper of the car is not necessarily the owner.

He said: “Even if you have the registered keeper's last known details, you can't necessarily go after the registered keeper because they may say it’s been sold, and they might not have adhered to the DVLC requirements to notify them of the change of ownership or change of registered keeper.

“To pursue that money through debt recovery is very easy, but for people to say it's nothing to do with them, then the cost lies with the authority.”